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Is it worth replacing my laptop? (Resolved)

Hello Dan_is_me, Moved your thread here as this is a more appropriate forum We may be able to help you give the present notebook a spring clean and make it more user friendly thus...
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Dan_is_me

Posted 02 December 2015 - 10:57 AM

Dan_is_me

New Member

Member

6 posts

Hi lovely people,

I have an Acer Aspire that I bought 4 years ago. It runs a bit slowly sometimes, but I have not reset the computer in all the time I've had it. I run CCleaner and I empty the cache in my browser regularly. Is it worth replacing my laptop with something new considering that I'm about to start a university program? I'm not big on installing video programs on my computer, and I don't play computer games that require a lot of resources.

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phillpower2

Posted 02 December 2015 - 12:55 PM

We may be able to help you give the present notebook a spring clean and make it more user friendly thus keeping your hard earned cash in your pocket.

Download then run Speccy (free) and post the resultant url for us, details here, this will provide us with information about your computer hardware + any software that you have installed that may explain the present issue/s.

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Posted 02 December 2015 - 03:38 PM

phillpower2

Posted 02 December 2015 - 04:27 PM

phillpower2

Tech Staff

Technician

21,197 posts

Speccy doesn't look too bad but there are a couple of pointers for you;

You have a 64-bit OS but only 4GB of Ram, 8GB is considered the sweet spot for a 64-bit OS + adding more Ram is still the most cost effective all round improvement that you can make, consider swapping in 2 X 4GB sticks of Ram at some point, see my canned text below;

Use the Crucial system scanner tool hereto find the best recommended Ram and SSD for your system, no need to purchase from there, write down the details, let us know what is suggested and we can take a look for you.

You have the following software and scheduled updates on your computer that may not only slow it down but also make it unstable, I will let you know which;

Running: Norton Online Backup - will slow things down, fine if you use it but get rid if you don't.

Stopped: McAfee Application Installer Cleanup (0055311439400629) - these two may be shown to not be running but if either does it will conflict with Kaspersky, slow down the computer + there is the possibility that Kaspersky could be cancelled out leaving you with no protection.

Stopped: McAfee Security Scan Component Host Service - as above.

The following scheduled updates are totally unnecessary, they will bog down your computer, you should decide when you search for and install updates for any software other than the OS and your AV;

Hoxtro9988712

Posted 03 December 2015 - 01:38 AM

Hoxtro9988712

Member

Member

27 posts

Well yes more RAM is great and yes 8GB is the sweet spot for a x64 OS. Another 4gb could do the job along with a proper reinstall of the OS as it might be a little rotted from over time. The system itself would do fine for any uni student.

It seems that I can only insert two 4GB sticks to replace my current two 2 GB sticks. In other words, I can't put in a third 4GB stick, which seemed to be recommended. It also appears that 8GB sticks don't exist, at least not for my laptop.

This bit was mentioned on the Crucial report:

Maximum memory: 8192MB
Slots:2 (2 banks of 1)

*Not to exceed manufacturer supported memory.

From the Speccy report, I have:

Memory
Type DDR3
Size 4096 MBytes

So it seems that upgrading to 8 GB of RAM will double the memory capacity, and reach the maximum manufacturer-supported memory. Is that right?

As for costs, I've looked up amazon.ca to compare with Crucial.com. I would have this stuff shipped to Canada, where I will be in a short while. Even considering Crucial's international shipping costs and taxes, they offer a better price than Amazon.ca, as shown in this link:

Hoxtro9988712

Posted 03 December 2015 - 06:29 PM

phillpower2

Posted 04 December 2015 - 08:24 AM

phillpower2

Tech Staff

Technician

21,197 posts

Hello Dan_is_me,

Speccy looks better

Bit of confusion regarding the suggested Ram upgrade;

It seems that I can only insert two 4GB sticks to replace my current two 2 GB sticks. In other words, I can't put in a third 4GB stick, which seemed to be recommended. It also appears that 8GB sticks don't exist, at least not for my laptop.

From my reply #2

consider swapping in 2 X 4GB sticks of Ram at some point

So it seems that upgrading to 8 GB of RAM will double the memory capacity, and reach the maximum manufacturer-supported memory. Is that right?

Correct

As for costs, I've looked up amazon.ca to compare with Crucial.com. I would have this stuff shipped to Canada, where I will be in a short while. Even considering Crucial's international shipping costs and taxes, they offer a better price than Amazon.ca, as shown in this link:

Beware of brokerage fees when shipping from the US, take a look at the thread here and you will see why.

This tutorial seems to tell me what I need to know (that upgrading your RAM is quite easy):

It is but I avoid ever using such words as some people may not find it "easy".

Norton, McAfee and power plan information acknowledged

Don`t worry about the scheduled updates for now as they will be taken care of by the steps below, initially only temporarily though and we may need to come back to them at some point.

Click on Start then Run, type msconfigand press Enter.Click on the Startup tab (for Windows 8, the Startup tab has a link to open Task Manager/Startup tab. Use that.) make a note of what is currently starting then click the Disable All button.Reboot and see if it runs better.

Dan_is_me

Posted 04 December 2015 - 03:20 PM

Dan_is_me

New Member

Topic Starter

Member

6 posts

philpower2 and Hoxtro9988712,

Thanks a big huge much for your help! Thanks to philpower2 for introducing me to new programs for analysing my computer. I work in the field of Ed Tech, and these are the kinds of tools that I can pass on to others! Thanks also for that link to the discussion about Crucial.com. One of the posts listed Canadian sources of tech hardware that I am familiar with but hadn't thought of. I'll look at the prices and then make up my mind who to buy from.

I will be re-installing my OS soon, and I am yet to do the msconfig thing. I just have other things I need to do with my laptop first.

My next challenge is to buy a new battery. I'll do what I can on my own and let you know if I get stuck,

I don't have anything to offer in return for your advice, but I can recommend the show "Halt and Catch Fire" which is about the tech industry in Texas in the early 80s. There are two seasons of ten episodes with a third season to start in 2016. Here is the trailer: I really liked the show as well as its amazing soundtrack.

phillpower2

Posted 04 December 2015 - 04:00 PM

You are most welcome and thank you for the trailer, more of a sci fi fan myself but may take a look at season one to see if it grabs my attention

Keep us posted on your progress and any questions along the way please ask.

JAFYI: We ask for nothing in return other than for folk to let us know when they no longer need our help so that threads can be marked as answered, this helps others using search engines looking for computer help for themselves